


Life, in threes

by sloganeer



Category: Shelter (2007)
Genre: M/M, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-06
Updated: 2014-05-06
Packaged: 2018-01-23 20:13:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,948
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1578014
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sloganeer/pseuds/sloganeer
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>With a hand at Zach's back, Shaun steers them back downstairs for the rest of the bags and boxes. "This was supposed to be my sad bachelor apartment," he explains. He grabs a green garbage bag stuffed full with pillows, blankets, and bedding. He leaves the art supplies for Zach. "This isn't our home. We're going to have a real house." He looks back over his shoulder at Zach. "A real life."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Life, in threes

**Author's Note:**

> This isn't really a story, just a few scenes I wrote after seeing the movie. Found in my files, cleaned up, and posted in the spirit of WIP amnesty.

The apartment in LA was supposed to be for one--a place to sulk and maybe write. But when Shaun came back to the city, he had a new boyfriend and a new five-year-old in tow.

There's a kitchen, living room, a bed, and a bath. No room for Zach to paint, and no view of the ocean.

"Is this my new home?" Cody asks, a yellow dumptruck in one hand, stuffed bear in the other.

"Just for now, buddy," Shaun tells him.

Zach comes in with the first of the boxes. "This is fine, Shaun."

"You haven't even seen it. And it's not." With a hand at Zach's back, Shaun steers them back downstairs for the rest of the bags and boxes. "This was supposed to be my sad bachelor apartment," he explains. He grabs a green garbage bag stuffed full with pillows, blankets, and bedding. He leaves the art supplies for Zach. "This isn't our home. We're going to have a real house." He looks back over his shoulder at Zach. "A real life."

When they get upstairs, Cody is on the floor in the bedroom. His stuffed bear is driving the dumptruck in a wide circle.

"Shaun, Shaun!" He jumps up and grabs hold of Shaun's legs. "Can this be my room?"

"Absolutely. 'Cody's room.' We'll put a sign on the door." Shaun hauls him up in his arms, revelling in the way Cody clings and drops his tiny head to Shaun's shoulder.

"Maybe Zach can draw on the walls like at our old house?"

Shaun matches Zach's smile. "Maybe."

The three of them spend their first night together in LA in a nest of pillows and blankets on the floor in Cody's room. The next day Shaun's credit card gets a workout with furniture, clothes, groceries, toys, and as much as Shaun is able to convince Zach to accept.

"You don't need to buy me underwear, Shaun."

"Who says I'm buying it for you?" When Zach ducks his head and hides behind the Calvin Kleins, Shaun takes the opportunity to pull him close and kiss his flushed cheeks. He doesn't let Zach pull too far away. He's taken the first big step, and, whenever he can, Shaun lets Zach know he's proud of him for that.

After burgers and shakes at a diner close by (and after Zach asks the manager about picking up a couple of shifts a week), they head home with another carload of stuff. Shaun's picked up a lot of baggage in the last week, but it's all the good kind.

Upstairs, the car empty again, Zach works in the kitchen, putting food and dishes away, and setting things up the way he likes them. Shaun works in the living room with the furniture, setting up their new pull-out bed, and Cody is in his room with his toys.

"You're quiet in there, Zach."

Shaun hears the fridge door opening and closing, then Zach says, "I haven't figured it out yet."

"But it's good?"

"It's good."

-

It's busy. Zach goes to school a few days a week and works at the diner the rest. Shaun has movies he's working on, and a new novel that he pokes at nights, carefully excited about what it might turn into. They get Cody into kindergarten and schedule their lives to be sure one of them is waiting to walk him home every afternoon.

They trade off dinners and chores, but even when Zach cooks, Shaun can't get him to sit still, so he lets him dry the dishes.

"I called Katie," Shaun tells him over the sink. "For tonight."

"What are we doing tonight that we need a babysitter?"

Shaun shakes his head, teasing Zach without answering his question. He grins and takes the wet plate from Zach's hand, but he won't say. This is going to be a surprise.

Zach's in the bedroom, where they keep their clothes, getting dressed when Katie arrives. "What do I wear?" he calls out.

"Something clean!"

"Where you going?" Cody is ready for bed, and Katie joins him with the Lego on the living room floor.

"Sorry, buddy, but it's a surprise for Uncle Zach." He kisses Cody goodnight, watches Zach do the same.

They really don't go out a lot. Dinners and movies, sometimes, surfing, of course. They had kind of skipped the dating part of their relationship. Shaun was happy with a glass of wine and a quiet night at home. Zach was happiest on the water.

Shaun holds onto his hand in the line outside the club and, still, as they push their way to the bar.

"What is this?" He has to yell before Shaun can hear him.

"This is dancing!"

The music was a welcome throb deep in Shaun's chest. No voices on the track, but all around them. He keeps his hand on Zach's hip, leading the dance. It's just moving, really, no steps, no lessons necessary. It's not what everyone might call dancing, but the way their hips fit together, there's only one other thing Shaun could call it.

Zach motions, _drink?_ , and Shaun nods and asks back, _Should I come?_ Zach shakes his head and lets him dance. He watches Zach weave through the crowd, then changes his mind and follows. There's no point in dancing without him.

Shaun pushed the button-down off Zach's shoulders while they were dancing and tucked it into the back of Zach's jeans, leaving him in his tank top. It makes him look like every other boy in the club, except it's Zach. He's waiting at the bar, standing back and waiting his turn, like he thinks that's the way to get a drink.

"Lemme get that for you, babe." Shaun wraps one arm around Zach's middle, holding up the other to call the bartender. "What do you want?"

"Just water."

"You sure?" He smacks a wet kiss on Zach's cheek and doesn't let Zach shake him off. "We've got all night."

-

By the time he escapes his friends, the crowd, and the rows and rows of chairs set up on the biggest space on campus for the ceremony, Zach looks tired and hot, roasting underneath his cap and gown. Shaun watches him crane his neck, jump up above the crowd, looking for them, but Cody finds him first. He's getting so big, and the running hugs haven't stopped, but they're more likely, these days, to send them both to the ground. Shaun motions everyone else to follow, Gabe, Tori, and Jeanne. He wasn't sure she was going to come, and he's still surprised that she's here. 

Shaun lifts his camera to his eye.

"No, no. Do we have to?" Zach ducks as Shaun snaps the first picture, but not the first of the day.

Cody stands close, under Zach's arm. He's almost up to Zach's shoulder now.

"Smile," Shaun tells them, and, reluctantly, they do.

There are more photos all around. Zach stands dutifully with them all, even loosens up enough to let Shaun kiss full on the mouth when Gabe grabs the camera and demands it. Tori kisses his cheek, Jeanne whispers something private in his ear, and Gabe lifts him right off the ground. Shaun watches as Zach, with Cody, who hasn't left his side, leads their small group to the parking lots and the cars.

"We'll meet you guys there?" Shaun asks, keys in hand. He opens the door for Cody, then unlocks the front for Zach. Gabe does the same for the girls at his SUV. Jeanne rode up from San Pedro with Tori, but Gabe drove them to the ceremony. They all wave as Shaun gets in the jeep.

He follows Gabe out of the lot, but then they split up.

"Where are we going?" Zach asks.

Cody, in the backseat, laughs. He and Shaun share a look in the rearview mirror.

"You didn't think you could graduate without a present, did you?"

Zach turns in his seat to give Cody the "dad" look, but no answer comes. Cody has kept the secret like Shaun didn't know he could. Zach looks back to Shaun, who matches the grin on Cody's face. "What did you two do?" 

"Give him the keys, Cody."

"What did you do, Shaun?"

In the backseat, Cody can't stop grinning. He digs into his pocket and holds out, for Zach, a keychain. It's a plain-looking silver key--nothing special, no recognizable logo. Zach holds it up, looking for clues from the two attached keychains: a silver Z and a plastic neon surfboard.

"I picked them out," Cody tells him.

Zach holds up his hand up for a high five. "Thanks, Codes." He looks over at Shaun.

"It's really not a car, Zach."

He closes his fist around his new keys. He holds them in one hand and reaches out to take Shaun's hand in his other. Zach turns his head to check where they are. The neighbourhood should be familiar. They pass the Italian place Shaun takes him for "grown-up time" and the store that sells the boardshorts Cody wore the whole year he was seven. Sometimes they come out this way for groceries and gas and a break from the suburbs.

Zach lets his eyes drift up, like they always do. Shaun doesn't have to wonder what Zach sees in the streetlights, the telephone wires, the vents on roofs, the trees, and the sky, the sun touching everything with gold in the late afternoon. He's seen Zach's art. That's what Zach is making in his mind every time his eyes drift away from Shaun, and Shaun can't be mad about that. 

When Shaun pulls into the parking lot and stops, Zach doesn't notice. He startles when Shaun touches his shoulder. 

"This is it," Shaun says.

They pile out of the jeep and into a parking lot, mostly empty, staring up at an office building, non-descript, except for a blue awning over the cafe in the corner. Zach looks so confused. Shaun wants to wrap him up and explain, but Cody is excited for the surprise.

"C'mon," Cody says, and he leads Zach inside and up the stairs. Shaun follows close behind. They stop outside a closed door: number 205.

"Open it," Cody prompts.

Zach looks down at the key in his hand. He unlocks the door. He opens it and steps inside, his breath catching in his throat. Cody runs inside, but Shaun waits for Zach.

"What do you think?" he asks, resting his chin on Zach's shoulder, standing close, for comfort.

The room is small, but big enough for his tables, the one that, this morning, was in their courtyard, and the one Zach left behind in San Pedro four years ago. On the tables are stacks of his stencils, jars of his pens, trays of his paints. One whole wall of the room is covered in pieces of paper--nearly everything Zach has ever drawn in his life, pinned up on display. Shaun and Gabe did the heavy lifting after Zach took Cody and the girls on a tour of his campus before the ceremony. 

There's also a small kitchenette, brushes already soaking in the sink. A short ratty couch Shaun found on Craigslist and a stack of old art books arranged into a seating area in the corner.

Cody stands in the middle of the room. He's waiting for Zach to say something. "Isn't it so cool, Zach?"

"It's great."

"You know what it is?" Shaun asks. He turns his face into Zach's neck to kiss him there. Zach reaches back to wrap Shaun's arms around himself.

"It's a studio."

"Nope." Shaun squeezes him tight. "It's your studio. Just yours."


End file.
